One of the rescuers, whose wife was in hospice care for cancer, received word in the middle of the animal operation that his wife had died. He continued working, determined to see the mission through. Webbers Falls - a community of 596 people about 35 miles from the Arkansas state line - is a town under water. The floodwaters rose almost to the top of a small school bus, and reached the bottom of the cross on the wall outside one submerged church. Dozens of homes and businesses had several feet of water inside, and the roads were lakes boats were the only means of travel. Smith, who works at a grain and barge company. I have, probably, six to eight feet in my house.” “I watched my own house go under water while trying to help everybody else.
Runoff from storms last week pushed the Arkansas River over its banks and forced the Army Corps of Engineers to release more water from the Keystone Dam west of Tulsa to pour downstream. Webbers Falls had a scare last week that made national news, after floodwaters broke two barges loose from their moorings and sent them careening toward a dam just upstream from Webbers Falls. People in town feared an impact would cause a catastrophic breach. But the barges bumped into the dam and sank without causing major damage.Įarly on, many residents decided to ride out the storm and simply keep an eye on the water levels. But the looming danger of the approaching barges - “Leave now!!” read one posting on the town’s Facebook page - prompted many of them to flee suddenly, without the means or the time to bring their pets, Mr. Residents who had left animals at home notified the fire department and the authorities, and the rescue team on Sunday had a list of addresses to check. All the pets who were rescued went to an animal shelter in Muskogee, about 20 miles away, to await pickup by their owners. Hours after the Muskogee County Emergency Management issued a complete evacuation of Webbers Falls on Tuesday (May 21), the agency reported it was already seeing roads flooding. The last rescue happened near the end of the afternoon.
Someone spotted something in the distance, following the boats as they were leaving. The team stopped to wait, and with a shock of recognition, they saw a straggly creature swimming toward them.
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